The Promise in Eph 3:6 #6
/By Oscar M. Baker
To Eve, Satan uttered the impious words that revealed once more the arrogant and blasphemous assertion he had once made concerning himself. To appreciate their full force we will set out these statements in the order in which they were uttered. Satan said:
1. Can it be that God said? God's Word (Truth) Denied! (He abode not in the truth).
2. Ye shall not surely die. No death! Yet Satan himself abode in death (1 John 3:14).
3. Ye shall be as God. Possessing Divine Nature Apart From Christ. (I will be like the Most High).
(Isa. 14:14; 2 Thess. 2:4).
This threefold claim by Satan has provided the foundation of all the false doctrines which have since emerged. In the reasoning of fallen man, God is not permitted to reserve to Himself the right to act in judgment, for it is boldly said, "If He is a God of love He will not act contrary to this characteristic!" Thus His truth is denied and men are lulled into a sense of false security by the one in whom the whole world lieth (Gr. 1 John 5:19). Ever since the first utterance of the awful words, "Ye shall not die" man has sought to convince himself that Satan's lie is the truth. To this end various means have been adopted: the Spiritist's so-called communication with the dead: the kindred Satanic delusion of the non-existence of pain and death and the Mind's ultimate triumph over matter: and finally the creed that affirms that at death a man either goes to a place of bliss or a place of torment! These false ideas contribute to and support The Lie concerning death.
Furthermore, in the Word of God, death is said to be the last enemy to be destroyed, therefore we should treat it as such, never according to it the glory which belongs solely to the Resurrection - which alone is able to accomplish God's purposes in Christ. To look upon death as a friend which will make possible a "life of happiness" is to deny the necessity of the resurrection and to subscribe to the lie.
The words chosen to reveal to us the absolute importance of the Resurrection of Christ could not be plainer, "If there be no resurrection of the dead then is Christ not risen, and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and our faith is also vain...ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen alseep in Christ are perished." The resurrection then is all important. It restores what death took away - Life! In view of its importance therefore we can now understand why Satan has ever sought to obliterate its glorious truth. In bruising the heel of Christ upon the cross Satan appeared to obtain a fleeting triumph, But on the resurrection morn that "Triumph" was turned into utter defeat. The True Victor arose from the dead, and in so doing Crushed the head of the serpent.
Continued.
